美国英语与英国英语在词汇上的差异

1、 攀枝花学院本科毕业论文 美国英语与英国英语 在词汇上的差异学生姓名： 学生学号： 院（系）： 年级专业： 指导教师： The Lexical Differences BetweenAmerican English and British EnglishContentsAbstractIKey wordsI摘要关键词Introduction1.The History of British and American English2A.The History of British English2 1. The Period of Old English2 2. The Period of Mi

2、ddle English3 3. The Period of Modern English3B. The Development of American English on the Basis of British English4.Reasons for the Development of American English5A. Being in Different Regions5B. Borrowing Words from Other Countries6C. Revolting Politics and Ideology in North America8.The Differe

3、nt Meaning in American English9A. Creation of American Lexicon9B. Different Meanings between American and British English10 C. Same Objects Expressed in Different Vocabularies10D. The Simplification in American English Lexicology11 E. Other Forms of American English Different from British English12.

4、 The Developing Tendency of American English and British English13A. The Influence of American English13B. The Leading Position of American English13Conclusion16Acknowledgements17Bibliography18AbstractWith the development of the two countriesAmerica and the U.K., the differences in some fields are c

5、lear and are also reflected in their languages. Even though there are many similarities in both variants, there are many differences in lexicology because of different regions, social backgrounds, the ways of peoples thinking, etc. This paper discusses the differences in lexicology between British E

6、nglish and American English and their tendency through the historical development of the two variants.Key WordsAmerican English; British English; the lexical difference摘要美国是一个移民国家,美国英语主要是十七世纪英国英语在美国的进一步发展。美国英语和英国英语虽然有很多相同之处,但是由于历史文化和社会背景及人们的思维方式导致了很多的不同。随着社会的发展,美国英语与英国英语的差别越来越显著。本文通过回顾分析英国英语和美国英语的历史

7、演变和发展过程,论述了美国英语和英国英语在词汇方面存在的主要差异，通过了解两种英语在词汇方面存在的差异,使英语学习者比较容易地掌握某一种英语以及正确地表达英语包含的丰富的知识。本文同时还指出了美国英语以其独有的特点和语言艺术魅力越来越受到人们的关注,从而探讨英语的发展趋势。关键词美国英语；英国英语；词汇差异IntroductionAmong the thousands of different languages in the world there is only one that can claim to be a more or less universal languageEnglis

8、h. It is estimated that there are over 300 million native speakers, of whom some 200 million live in the United States and some 50 million in the United Kingdom. In addition to native speakers there are about 500 to 700 million people using English, which makes the total number of speakers nearly on

9、e-forth of the worlds population. Today, American English is particularly influential; there are many other varieties of English around the world, including, for example, Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English. Among the

10、 different variants of English the two best known are American English and British English. There do exist differences between the two, just as many differences in the varieties within themselves. To be consistent in the use of English, and more importantly, to be understood, the nonnative speaker n

11、eeds to know which words have distinct meanings and pronunciations depending on whether they are used by an Englishman or an American. This is necessary not only for sake of communication, but also to avoid embarrassment. This paper will focus on how American English came to be different from Britis

12、h English in lexicology. Historical Background of British and American EnglishA. The History of British EnglishThe history of the English language can be dated from the arrival of three Germanic tribes to the Britain during the 5th Century AD. Angles, Saxons and Jutes crossed the North Sea from what

13、 is the present day Denmark and northern Germany to Britain. The inhabitants of Britain previously spoke a Celtic language. However, it was quickly displaced by the language brought with the invaders. Most of the Celtic speakers were pushed into Wales, Cornwall and Scotland. One group migrated to th

14、e Brittany Coast of France where their descendants still speak the Celtic Language of Breton today. The Angles were named from Engle, their land of origin. After experiencing constant development, immigrates language had changed into the current English. Up to now, it has more than one thousand five

15、 hundred years, which some scholars divided into several stages in order to illustrate the history of English. However, they did not divide it in the same way. “Here quotes the way of American professor Kennedy who divided historical process of period into such three stages” (Guo Boyu 5).1. The Peri

16、od of Old English The period from 450 to 1100 is known as the Old English. The earliest period begins with the immigration of certain Germanic tribes from the continent to Britain in the fifth century A. D., though no records of their language survive from before the seventh century, and it continue

17、s to the end of the eleventh century or maybe a bit later. As having been seen that English language did not simply spring into existence; it was brought from the Continent by Germanic tribes who had no form of writing and hence left no records. Philologists know that they must have spoken a dialect

18、 of a language that can be called West Germanic. By that time Latin, Old Norse (the language of the Viking invaders), and especially the Anglo-Norman French of the dominant class after the Norman Conquest in 1066 had begun to have a substantial impact on the lexicon. The following brief sample of Ol

19、d English prose illustrates several of the significant ways in which English has transformed. A few of these words will be recognized as identical in spelling with their modern equivalents - he, of, him, for, and, on etc., and some of words are familiar to modern words, which can be easily guessed,

20、such as wre to were, ws to was, of which only these who have made special study of Old English can understand what their meanings are.2. The Period of Middle EnglishThe period of Middle English extends roughly from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. This period was marked by important and signifi

21、cant changes in the English language, especially in the vocabulary. The Norman Conquest was the cause of these changes. The change of this period had a great effect on vocabulary. In this period many Old English words were lost, but thousands of words borrowed from French and Latin appeared in the E

22、nglish vocabulary. Because the Normans who conquered the Britain were government administrators or lords, meat was their most main dishes. Such words as beef, mutton, veal, and calf, etc. came into English vocabulary. That is to say, the influence of French upon the English lexicon continued through

23、out this period. “English had also strong influence from Latin (mostly through the church and scholars) and the Norman invasion of England brought about significant changes in the language” (Guo Boyu 6).3. The Period of Modern EnglishModern English period extends from fifteenth century to the presen

24、t day. Modern English developed by the efforts of literary and political writings. From 1500 to 1700 is the early modern English. During this time, the chief influence of this time was great humanistic movement of the Renaissance. Since the 16th Century, because of the contact that the British had w

25、ith many peoples from around the world, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, many words have entered the language either directly or indirectly. New words were created at an increasing rate. Shakespeare coined over 1600 words. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries are a period of rapid expans

26、ion for the English vocabulary in the history of the English language. Other important developments at this period include the stabilizing effect on spelling of the printing press and the beginning of the direct influence of Latin, Greek on the lexicon. Later, as English came into contact with other

27、 cultures around the world and distinctive dialects of English developed in the many areas which Britain had colonized, other numerous languages made small but interesting contributions to the language vocabulary. Lexical improvement in this process has grown rapidly. Therefore, the vocabulary of En

28、glish is the largest of any language. The historical aspect of English really encompasses more than three stages of development above mentioned. English has what might be called a prehistory as well. English is just one relatively young member of an ancient family of languages whose descendants cove

29、r a fair portion of the globe. During the English development, there are numerous words borrowed from abroad. Borrowed words include names of animals, clothing, food, scientific and mathematical terms, drinks, religious terms, sports, vehicles, music and art, weapons, political and military terms, a

30、nd astronomical names.Languages that have contributed words to English include “Latin, Greek, French, German, Arabic, Hindi (from India), Italian, Malay, Dutch, Farsi (from Iran and Afghanistan), Sanskrit (from ancient India), Portuguese, Spanish, and Ewe (from Africa)” (Quark 4). Even with all thes

31、e borrowings the core of the language remains the Anglo-Saxon of Old English. Only about 5000 words from this period have remained unchanged but they include the basic building blocks of the language: household words, parts of the body, common animals, natural elements, most pronouns, prepositions,

32、conjunctions and auxiliary verbs.B. The Development of American English on the Basis of British EnglishThe history of American English can be divided into the colonial (1607-1776), the national (1776-1898), and the international (1898-present) periods. During nearly four hundred years of use in Nort

33、h America, the English language changed.American English began in the seventeenth century. At the beginning of the 17th century the English language was brought to North American by colonists from England. They used the language spoken in England. “George P. Krapp, a professor in Columbia University

34、 of American, indicated in his book that the British people had brought the Shakespeare and Miltons English into American. That is, Elizabethan English, the language used by Shakespeare, Milton and Banyan” (Guo Boyu 61). At first the language stayed the same as the language used in Britain, but slow

35、ly the language began to change. Sometimes, the English spoken in American changed but sometimes the language spoken in the place stayed the same, while the language in England changed. The development of the English language in America can be separated into three periods: The first period extends f

36、rom the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 to the end of colonial times. In this period the population in America numbered about four million people, 90 percent of them came from Britain. The second period covers the expansion of the original thirteen colonies. This period may be said to close with the

37、 Civil War, about 1860. This period was marked by the arrival of the new immigrants from Ireland and Germany. The third period, since the Civil War, is marked by an important change in the source from which the European immigrants came. They came from northern and southern Europe in large numbers.Fo

38、llowing American independence, famous persons like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Webster began to consider that the country should have a language of its own. English in America has developed a character of its own, reflecting the life and the physical and social environment of the American peop

39、le. As time went on, the English language gradually changed on both sides of the Atlantic. The Americans adopted many words from foreign languages and invented large number of new words to meet their various needs.Reasons for the Development of American EnglishA. Being in Different RegionsBritish En

40、glish changed after the emigrants left their homeland while American English formed after the colonists settled on the continent. The Origin of American English was in the Colonial Period in the 17th century when the English language first came to America with the colonists. After arriving in the ne

41、w continent-North America, the early settlers were not with just the only English language; there undoubtedly were several different dialects and they obviously had to cope with a general lack of uniformity of speech. It is also obvious that the changes producing the two variants of English happened

42、 on both sides of the ocean. In those days it was very difficult for an immigrant in America to be in contact with people left behind in the old country and therefore the changes in language on either side did not transfer to the other. Life in America, in a totally new environment, was different fr

43、om the life of the settlers; therefore language had to evolve because of the necessity of talking about new things, qualities, operations, concepts and ideas. There were features of colonial and frontier life that did not have an expression in the British English language; they encountered new plant

44、s, domesticated fish and animals. Later they found themselves living among tribes of indigenous peoples who spoke strange languages, wore strange clothing, prepared strange foods and maintained tribal customs quite different from anything they had previously encountered. Even landscapes were differe

45、nt from the English countryside. All of these unfamiliar things needed to be named in order to lead their new life in the continent without obstacles. Therefore, they have created new words for new things they had seen.B. Borrowing Words from Other CountriesBorrowing words from the Indians, French,

46、Spanish, Dutch, Germans and Africans is another way to make American English vocabulary different from those of British English. Actually, British English had also borrowed words from some of these countries, but compared with Britain, the words borrowed in American English were greatly and diversel

47、y different at such a certain time. One simple way of creating new names was borrowing them often from the native Indian languages. Many of the original Indian words contained sounds and had linguistic features that did not occur in English; therefore the words often changed considerably both in for

48、m and meaning in the borrowing process. “For instance, such words as hickory, pecan, chipmunk, squaw and raccoon are American Indian borrowings” (Guo Boyu 65).The spheres of life represented by these borrowings show that the largest number of Indian loan words is connected with the Indian institutio

49、ns and civilization. In these cases, as for these strange things they had previously met, it was also obviously easier to borrow the Indian term than to create a new one out of English elements. It was equally obvious that these terms were not transferred to British English, since these vocabularies

50、 were not present in Britain.From the early days of colonization, America became the melting pot of different nationalities and cultures. As these cultures came in contact with one another, they also influenced the language. Besides the Indian language, sources for loaned words of American English w

51、ere all the other languages that were present in the immigration. In the westward expansion of their territory, the English-speaking emigrants soon came into contact with the French words.American English also borrowed words from Spanish. In the period of moving south toward the Gulf of Mexico and m

52、oving west toward the Rockies, the Anglo-Saxon settlers encountered permanent and substantial Spanish colonies. It is obvious that the largest groups of borrowings from the Spanish reflects the hacienda culture, which typified the Spanish colonial occupation and the ranching and mining economy which

53、 developed out of it.Contacts with the Dutch colonialists were established in the 17th century. However, Dutch sailors had been in contact with the colonialists long before that. Some of the words borrowed from Dutch are wholly or in part translations rather than direct appropriations. The Germane m

54、igrations to America started also in the late 17th century. The contacts between the German and English-speaking immigrants have been to a large extent cultural, since a large portion of the borrowings from German concentrates on food terms and pleasant but commonplace social contact.One must not fo

55、rget another big group of different kind of immigrants that influenced the American English the black people who were transported from Africa as slaves. Such words as gumbo, jazz, voodoo, okra and chigger are Africans. Therefore African words are also widely used in American English. These are just

56、a few examples of loan words; there are also many more languages, representing smaller groups of immigrants, which have also made contributions to the American English vocabulary. All have done their part to make American English what it is today.C. Revolting Politics and Ideology in North AmericaNo

57、rthern American people fight against the autocratic rules of Britain in order to get their own freedom and rights. This kind of offensive attitude towards to Britain plays a very important role in the process of American English development. The people in North America dislike and hate British arts

58、and literature that are related to British English. They want a language with American feature which is different from British English. More and more scholars and authors think that they should use their own language to write books and to create without depending on British English. Noah Webster was one of them who made a great contribution to developing American English vocabulary.Webster is a dictionary publisher. Thanks to him, the American and British versions of the English language became separate, unique languages. In 1807, he began to write an expanded dict